Club ask supporters to get behind the former Liverpool manager as successor to Martin O’Neill
The search has lasted 30 days but Aston Villa have finally got their man. The Villa Park board should be feeling relief and satisfaction after identifying a successor to Martin O’Neill, yet one of the club’s non-executive directors has been busy posting messages on supporters’ websites defending their decision to bring in Gérard Houllier and warning fans that their derogatory remarks might scare the Frenchman off before he has said bonjour.
It is a strange backdrop to the arrival of a new manager, whose appointment was officially confirmed tonight, and one that contrasts sharply with the open-arms welcome O’Neill was given when he took over four years ago when he was hailed as Villa’s saviour. General Charles C Krulak, right-hand man of the chairman Randy Lerner, had not joined Villa at that point, though had he been in post it is safe to assume he would not have been fighting fires over the recruitment of O’Neill as he has with Houllier.
Although it is difficult to gauge the overriding mood of Villa fans about the former Liverpool manager – message boards generally carry negative rather than positive comments – there does seem to be some apprehension about the Frenchman. It is almost as if the more sceptical Villa fans want to run a highlighter pen over the end of his six-year-reign at Anfield, when things started to unravel, and overlook everything else on his CV.
That seemed to be the point that Krulak, who has earned notoriety for his candid messages, was trying to make when he turned on the more critical Villa supporters.
“Take Mr H for example,” Krulak wrote. “Whatever anyone thinks of him, he deserves respect from the fans of this club. He has a fine record with multiple clubs and deserves better for the amount of effort he has put into his chosen career than to be ridiculed by AVFC.”
Houllier is unlikely to lose any sleep over the criticism, despite Krulak’s concerns that “any manager worth their salt is going to do some due diligence on the club and that would probably include reading up on the fans and the type of support they might receive”. The reality is that Houllier will have far more important things on his mind as he gets to grips with being a manager again for the first time since 2007 and returning to the Premier League after a six-year absence.
On the face of it, both timescales present potential problems, but those close to Houllier are confident he will readapt to frontline management in England with the minimum of fuss. “Football is his life,” said Rick Parry, the former Liverpool chief executive. “The fact he’s wanting to get back into the hurly-burly of football at this stage, when he could easily put his feet up, sums him up. I have the utmost respect for him and he will bring a wealth of knowledge with him to Villa.”
There is a sense that Houllier still remains upset at how he was treated at Anfield at the end. He recently claimed that when Rafael Benítez, his successor, left this summer, one of the Liverpool players sent him a text that said: “Boss, he hasn’t beaten you.” The problem for Houllier, however, is that he seems to be remembered more for the poor signings that tarnished the end of his Liverpool reign than the four trophies he collected along the way.
With Brad Friedel, Stephen Warnock and Emile Heskey all having played under Houllier at Liverpool, the Villa squad will be well briefed as to what to expect. Whether the 63-year-old brings in a former Liverpool player as his assistant or encourages Kevin MacDonald to step up to that position remains to be seen, but finding a senior role for the man who took over as caretaker when O’Neill resigned might be a wise move given the respect he commands from the players.
Getting off to a good start at Stoke on Monday, would be another step in the right direction in terms of winning over the doubters, many of whom seem to have ignored the unenviable position O’Neill placed Villa in when he quit five days before the season started. It is easy to pick faults in the decision to appoint Houllier, but much more difficult to come up with a better choice of manager from a limited field.
“There will always be some people against a manager because he is not the one they wanted, but I think the majority will give Gérard a go,” said Dave Woodhall, the editor of the Heroes and Villains fanzine and a supporters’ trust board member. “The people I have spoken to accept it was an horrendous time to be dropped in it, and that Houllier is the best available at the moment. I’m sure he’ll get the reception an Aston Villa manager deserves.”
Aston VillaStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk
